Environmental Health and Safety

More than 40 leading companies from the retail, footwear, auto, furniture, building, home, beauty and healthcare sectors convened at NSF International in Ann Arbor last week to discuss how to effectively produce safer products for consumers.

QEP Services, a Colorado-based natural gas services company, has reached an agreement with the Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Department of Justice to resolve Clean Air Act violations at five natural gas compressor stations on the Uinitah and Ouray reservations in Northeastern Utah.

The Department of Environmental Protection will host a public meeting and hearing on Wednesday, May 30, to discuss and take testimony about the agency’s proposed response to mercury contamination at the former Ford City Equipment Site in Armstrong County, Penn.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is launching a new design competition called the Campus RainWorks Challenge to encourage student teams on college and university campuses across the country to develop innovative approaches to stormwater management.

Black carbon aerosols and tropospheric ozone, both humanmade pollutants emitted predominantly in the Northern Hemisphere's low- to mid-latitudes, are most likely pushing the boundary of the tropics further poleward in that hemisphere, new research by a team of scientists shows.

A new report titled "Irrational Exemption: Tar Sands Pipeline Subsidies and Why They Must End" says there is a $375 million subsidy for tar sands oil because oil and gas industry lobbyists have exempted them from paying into a fund designed to help clean up oil spills.

The U.S Environmental Protection Agency has entered into three settlements totaling $6,605,080 to help pay for groundwater cleanup at the South El Monte portion of the San Gabriel Valley Area 1 Superfund Site in Los Angeles, Calif.

If you live and work in the Washington, DC area, this year’s number one Most Endangered River may hit closer to home than you might think. The Potomac River provides drinking water for more than five million people in Maryland, Virginia and the District.

The area of the globe covered by wetlands (swamps, marshes, lakes, etc.) has dropped by 6 percent in 15 years. This decline is particularly severe in tropical and subtropical regions, and in areas that have experienced the largest increases in population in recent decades.

Being in a hospital is tough enough without having to worry about how the building will hold up during an earthquake. Now, veterans in Memphis, Tenn., can rest assured knowing that their medical center, even though it is located in the most active earthquake zone in the Eastern United States, has the most sophisticated seismic structural monitoring system in the country.

Average fuel economy (window-sticker values) of cars, light trucks, minivans and SUVs purchased in April was 23.9 mpg, down from 24.1 in March, but the same as in February. Despite the drop, fuel economy is up 3.8 mpg (or 19 percent) from October 2007, the first month of monitoring by UMTRI researchers Michael Sivak and Brandon Schoettle.

When the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded April 20, 2010, residents feared that their Gulf of Mexico shores would be inundated with oil. And while many wetland habitats and wildlife were oiled during the three-month leak, the environmental damage to coastal Louisiana was less than many expected, in part because much of the crude never made it to the coast.

Three research teams affiliated with Iowa State University’s Bioeconomy Institute have won Iowa Energy Center grants to help them combine biorenewable technologies for better production of fuels and chemicals.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today announced the extension of a public process exploring the expansion of incentives for voluntary partnerships with private landowners and other land stewards to help conserve imperiled wildlife.

The city of Unalaska, Alaska, will undertake a major upgrade of its municipal sewage treatment plant under a settlement of a Clean Water Act enforcement action filed against the city and the state of Alaska by the Department of Justice on behalf of the Environmental Protection Agency.

The Central Park Conservancy, an internationally recognized leader in park management and restoration, has been awarded a $500,000 grant from Alcoa Foundation and an in-kind donation of aluminum valued at $140,000 from Alcoa Recycling to design a sustainable waste management system to increase recycling and make trash removal in the Park more efficient.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has determined that the systems used at gas station pumps to capture harmful gasoline vapors while refueling cars can be phased out. Modern vehicles are equipped to capture those emissions